Geoff Helisma
Changes to Clarence Valley Council’s (CVC) monthly meeting process are aiming to improve meeting cycle efficiency and interaction with the wider community.
Staff wrote in the report to the Thursday January 20 extraordinary meeting, that CVC’s code of meeting practice, code of conduct, and “a suite of other policies, [are] essential to [ensure] the transparent, accountable and efficient operations of CVC, generally, and meetings of council and associated committees in particular”.
The Independent spoke with mayor Ian Tiley about the changes he has initiated.
GH: You’ve made significant changes to the monthly ordinary meeting cycle; what is the purpose [pending exhibition and formal adoption of the changes] of eliminating the committee process?
IT: My intention in reforming the council meeting cycle, with support of the other councillors, was to do away with the committees from the week before, because they were fairly ineffective: the debates [contested] one week would be had again with four additional councillors the following week.
It’s far better, in my view, for councillors to sit down in a workshop, or [as] I call it, an information session, to ask all of the questions that they have – exhaust the questions on the Friday before the council meeting: so … councillors [can] form their views as to how they should vote on important matters. That was one reason for the change.
Furthermore, I was strongly of the view that we need to [do] onsite inspections for development application matters, and that’s going to happen on Friday afternoons. Again, that’s about helping councillors to form their views for voting on their big day, which is the ordinary council meeting on the fourth Tuesday afternoon [of the month].
GH: Are you aiming to reduce repetition of debates by doing away with the ‘works, environment, planning and community’ and the ‘corporate, governance and works’ committees?
IT: Those days are gone. I’ve got lots of other mechanisms to get through the business paper far more efficiently.
The proposed information session on the business paper will be led by the acting general manager.
First of all, the director or the report writer will introduce the item, so we know what it is about. Then councillors can ask questions … as many as they want.
As you know there are four new councillors, so [they] will have a steep learning curve.
It’s better to do that and inform councillors more, than it is to have a fairly rigid debate in a committee process and, then the next week, those [committee] recommendations can be overturned.
We’re doing away with that process, and there are other processes being introduced.
GH: As part of the meeting cycle, you’re inviting people to make presentations; what’s that about?
IT: On the morning of the meeting day there will be a presentation segment – up to two groups with 15 minutes each. They can tell the council what they are about.
The groups can be bureaucrats, non-government organisations, charities, whatever – followed by deputations that relate to something in the business paper.
There will be plenty of opportunities for people to be engaged, both onsite for DAs and in the chamber prior to the meeting in the deputation section.
Clarence Valley residents can have their say on the changes councillors have supported when the revised draft code of meeting practice is placed on exhibition for 28 days, with submissions being received for up to 42 days.